Virginia is one day away from its statewide election, and the Democrats have taken back the lead in key races.
For the first time since the scandal that momentarily plagued Democrat attorney general nominee Jay Jones, he is back ahead of Republican incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares.
In early October, reports revealed Jones’ history of reckless driving and threatening violence against one of his political opponents.
In 2022, police pulled over Jones for reckless driving. He was sentenced to community service, but the reports show he misled the judge, because a significant amount of the community service hours he served were spent working for his own political action committee.
Also in October, National Review uncovered violent text messages Jones sent in 2022 to a Republican General Assembly colleague in which he fantasized about killing then-Virginia Republican Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert and watching his two small children die in their mother’s arms.
Republicans were quick to call out this behavior as disqualifying, but Jones stayed the Democrat nominee, facing little to no pushback from his own party to get out of the race. Miyares then immediately and consistently led the polls—until this weekend.
A new poll from Emerson College and Nexstar Media shows Jones outpacing Miyares by 1.5 points—Jones 48.6% to Miyares 47.1%—although still within the poll’s margin of error. Pollsters asked 880 Virginians Oct. 30-31 if the election were held today, who would they vote for.
According to RealClearPolling, Miyares previously led Jones in several polls an average of 3.6 points after the text messages were released.
Democrat gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger is also leading her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. The same poll asked voters who they would vote for governor, and Spanberger led by nearly 12 points—54.9% to Earle-Sears’ 44%.
The Virginia polls are set to open Tuesday at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
